Death of the old and Rebirth of the new
by Sargent Snarky
Summary: Before CC Corp. finalized the career werewolf expansions for highlevel fighters, they had beta testers, of course.They were testing werewolf, vampire and summoners.In the end they decided only career werewolves, but why? [discontinued]
1. Prologue

** Death and Rebirth**

_Summery (the sort that would go on the back of a book cover):_

Before CC Corp. finalized the career werewolf expansions for high-level fighters, they had beta testers, of course. They were also testing two more expansions, one a career vampire for any player and a career summoner for wavemasters. In the end they decided to use only career werewolves, but why? Perhaps this will explain it.

Maya - having leveled up her wavemaster character as high as possible, and winning renowned by her completion of an event deemed impossible to beat, much like the One Sin event the Descendants of Fianna had beaten and with a similar prize - Idryth, a high level twin blade character who had formed a party with her to complete that event, and, also Taran, a long arm member of that party, form the Black Angel party. These three have been offered the chance to beta-test three new expansions for high level characters; the vampire expansion for Idryth, the summoner expansion for Maya and the werewolf expansion for Taran. Eager to try it out, the three accept, but it winds up being more than they bargained for.

_Disclaimer:_ I do not own .hack (more's the pity), neither the games, nor the anime, nor the manga. OK, so I own copies of most of the above, but I don't own the copyright, the original ideas or the characters. I do, however, own this plot and I do own my characters, although cannons do pop up here and there. Like Balmung (recently made a Sys admin), Kamui, Reki, Magi, Wiseman, Orca, Ouka (before she becomes a werewolf) and others.

_Further disclaiming:_ I do not own the songs, books, poems, etc. to which I will occasionally allude, borrow from, quote, etc. For each chapter, I might post a quote or lyrics from a song, but I might not, so don't flame me if I don't.

_Reviews_: I like reviews. Even if I don't get many reviews, if I have inspiration to write, I will. However, reviews help me to be a better writer and help me to realize dumb mistakes I've made so I don't make them again. Smart mistakes are rare, but I like those pointed out as well.

_About character's names in real life_: A cannon character /may/ already have an official name. Except for the first names of Tsukasa (An, though in my Fragments fic, I give her the name Amaya) and Orca (Yasuhiko), I don't know them. And I'm too lazy to go and look /everything/ up. And I like coming up with my own names, but I don't mind if you point out that the names I give characters are not correct. Just don't be snotty or "holier-than-thou" about it.

On to the story!

_Prologue:_

"_Are you sure you want to start beta-ing the new careers, now? We haven't made sure all the kinks and bugs are out of them, yet."_

"_That's all right. If the beta testers discover anything wrong, they'll report it and we can fix it then."_

"_But..."_

"_No 'buts,' please. Just find three players who qualify for the first round of beta testing. Although, we really ought to call the first group alpha testers."_

"_Hmm. All right, but make sure you tell Kamui so she doesn't try and delete them. While that would be entertaining, it wouldn't be productive."_

"_Don't worry. I already forewarned her about the new careers and I'll be sure to tell her and the other administrators when you've picked the players. Are we giving them three or six months free access?"_

"_Six months, the duration of the testing and, if we decide to initiate the new careers, they can choose to be the first official members of the new, exclusive careers. If they choose not to, then they can pick one of the new weapons to be released at the same time, or something. But are you sure you only want one player per new career?"_

"_For now. In three months, if things go well, we'll add a few more."_

"_All right. I'd better go find qualifying characters, then."_

_

* * *

_AUTHOR's NOTE: It will be a while before I post the first chapter, though I am nearly finished with it, due to my internet condition. That is to say, I don't have internet at home. It's broken and dead... Yea... But, don't worry.. the actual chapters will be significantly L o n g e r.


	2. Chapter 1

_The same bloody disclaimer applies to this chapter. Ok? I do not own .hack._   
Chapter 1 "So, Gregory-san, you summoned us here to discuss what?" asked a twin blade of a tall wavemaster as they stood in a room with four chairs round a wooden table, the only furnishing or decoration.   
The twin blade wasn't particularly colorful, red eyes, crimson blades and red stitches along the hems of his garments being the only coloration officially on the color wheel. The rest of his ensemble was comprised of neutral colors, black, gray, white and silver. His face, for all intents and purposes, was white with double black bars beneath his eyes and one running down his forehead to the tip of his nose. Silver hair fell in smooth, yet uneven layers to his shoulders. He wore a loose black short-sleeved tunic, red stitches on the hems, over a medium gray shirt that fit close to the skin. It was tucked into a pair of black gloves, red trim upon their cuff, and into a pair of black pants that came down to the knee. There, though they poofed about the cuff, they were tucked into black boots, nearly heel-less and dull rather than shiny. These looked like the sort of boots made to kick ass. A black belt was about his waist, with two loops for his swords. Ah, but I forgot the most striking thing, the crimson eyes aside: the wings! Two large, black batty wings protruding from his back, currently folded neatly. 

"I called you, Idryth, and the rest of the Elusive Angel party here because each of you fit the requirements for the three careers for high level players, which we may or may not introduce to the public," said Gregory, who need not be described in great detail for his looks were similar to Reki's, save for the facts that this man's robe was cerulean, his hair was red, he had freckles and a few other minor details. "I will be showing the three of you information about these careers and offer you the choice to beta test them. I'll tell you the rest when Maya and Taran arrive."

Presently, there came a knock at the door and it opened to reveal a tall, thin long arm player. He wore loose karate type pants, deep blue in color and a pair of brown boots. Also, he had on a loose blue tunic of a lighter shade, belted with a tan cord, a different shade of blue vest over it. On his hands was a pair of black fingerless gloves. This young man had light blue hair, short, but slightly shaggy nonetheless, framing his cobalt eyes. On his face, he had one jagged line of navy from his forehead down his right cheek to his chin, but that was the only mark upon his skin. He had silvery skin, the only character modification he had accepted for clearing a certain, nearly impossible event with Idryth and Maya. His spear was currently in a sheath-like thing upon his back, easily drawn if need be, but out of the way.

"Hello, Taran," said Idryth. "Where's Maya?"

Taran shrugged. "I have no idea. It isn't like her to be late without reason, though. Maybe she hasn't read her email yet? Ah, you must be Gregory who sent the email?"

"Yes, that's me. Anyway, she's read it," said Gregory. "And replied to it this morning. I do not know why she is not here, but if she does not come in the next five minutes, then I will tell you two everything."

Three minutes passed, and then there was a knock on the door again. This time, it opened to reveal a female wavemaster. She wore similar attire to Tsukasa or Elk, though her outer tunic was a light, sea-foam green. Beneath it was a deep forest green (though slightly blue tinted) tunic, complete with a hood. And beneath that, barely showing at the collar was a blue-green turtleneck, a few shades darker than the outer tunic. The wavemaster's skirt was the same shade as the turtleneck and beneath this was a pair of leggings or tights. The skirt, however, reached down the shins, stopping several inches short of a pair of light tan ankle boots. If one examined carefully, one could see a pair of dark socks beneath the boots, over the tights. The tunics and skirt were girt with a thin belt the same color as the boots, adorned at intervals with sparkling, blue-green fiery opals, though they appeared reddish if the light caught them just right. The girl had silvery white hair, much like Idryth's in cut, but longer, passing beyond her shoulders down to, at the longest, mid back. Atop it she wore a hat exactly like Tsukasa's or Elk's, save that it was sea-foam green, the band was dark and it was adorned with the same opals upon the belt.

The wavemaster's eyes were brilliant green with silver flecks, framed by her silver white hair. Her skin was pale, but there was a dark green slash (again, like the two cannon wavemasters) on each cheek and a spiral-like design on her forehead, though it was difficult to see because of the hair. But, again we forget the most striking feature; wings. Her wings were large feathered things, matching her hair in color, though they had the occasional green-tinted pinion. In her hands she held no staff, at least at the moment.

"Hello Maya. Why're you so late?" asked Taran.

"My cat coughed up a hairball and I was cleaning it up," explained the wavemaster, bowing politely to the other three before coming forward.

Idryth chuckled. "It figures your cat would do that. Well, so long as he doesn't walk across the keyboard again."

"Indeed. Anyway, sir Gregory?" said Maya." You called us here about beta testing careers?"

"That is correct. CC corporation is planning on introducing special careers open to qualifying high level players. It just so happens that you three qualify for the three careers we are contemplating. Therefore, since you are all in the same party, we decided to ask you three to do it before searching for other possible candidates. If you accept, then each of you must go through the special event to gain the career you fit and you must do it alone. If you guys don't want to, however, that's fine, but there are benefits that I think you will like."

The three players looked at each other, then Maya asked, "What are the benefits you speak of? And what sort of event must each complete to gain the career? More importantly, what are the careers?"

"Last question first. The careers would be a vampire, a werewolf and a summoner. Idryth qualifies for the vampire, Taran for the werewolf and Maya the summoner. As for the events, well, a test and fighting are involved, as you descend through the special dungeons. And your character data gets rewritten, though you get to customize it to a certain extent and will be able to keep pretty much the same character design, if you wish, at the bottom of the dungeon if you succeed. If you go strait to the bottom of the dungeon, however, without exploring it much, then you don't get the career. There's an item within the dungeon but not at the bottom that you need. And you must go alone. Also, when your character changes, your level in the career is one. For example, if Maya became a summoner, she would still be a level 99 wavemaster, but her summoning level would be one."

"The benefits," Gregory continued. "For you three would be more powerful and unique characters, free access for the duration of the beta testing, which is six months, and after the beta testing, you will have the option to keep your upgraded character or you may revert to your old character. Either way, you may keep any of the specialized items you have gained and you get to pick one of the new rare items we will be releasing."

"What if you decide not to release one of the careers to the general public?" asked Taran.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Gregory. "Any further questions or would you like to see the information about each character class?"

"The information," said the three at once.

"All right!" exclaimed Gregory and three screens appeared in front of Maya, Idryth and Taran. "One thing about werewolves, though. A werewolf character automatically becomes a hand-to-hand combatant."

Upon the first screen was displayed the information concerning a werewolf. Two pictures were on it, one of a wolf and one of a generic werewolf character. The avatar had wolf's ears, golden eyes, claws and a wolf's hind paws. Based on the information presented, it was seen that a werewolf character would have high physical accuracy, evasion, defense and attack, though its magic statistics were low. A werewolf character would have the special ability to transform into a wolf and, as a wolf, the controls would be different. Also, as a wolf, a character would be able to track things and would have heightened hearing.

On the second screen was displayed information concerning vampires. A single picture was upon this one, displaying a generic player with a few additions. The skin was very pale and the eyes were black. White fangs were visible pressed against the player's lips. However, those were the only changes. The statistics presented said that a vampiric character would have a high evasion, agility, physical accuracy and physical attack. All other statistics depended upon the player. However, a vampire's elemental statistics for light and dark would be fixed. Light would be zero and Dark would be 200, twice the highest it could go. Also, a vampire was granted three additional, permanent spells: Blood Drain, Paralysis, and Shadow Melding. Blood Drain was a short range spell that drained health from a monster or player and gave it to the vampire. This was the vampire's main method of recovery for the 'repth' spells had no effect on vampires. (though potions were usable) Paralysis temporarily halted the movement of the target, even if the target was resistant to paralysis or magic. However, this spell cost a lot of Spirit Points. The final spell allowed a vampire in a dungeon to become a shadow. In other words, the player would become nearly impossible to hit by anything save a light spell. However, this, too, cost a lot of SP and only lasted a few minutes at most.

On the third screen, the statistics of a summoner were displayed along with two pictures, one depicting one of the summoners' staff and the other depicting one of the summon monsters. A summoner would receive no changes to his or her character design save for a pendant with the symbol of the summoners upon it and a summoner's staff. This staff would have a unique design and would be the summoner's permanent weapon. However, the summoner would upgrade it by purchasing or otherwise acquiring spell and/or summon crystals. These would add a small symbol or maybe merely its power to the staff and grant the player the ability to summon a given creature or cast a specific spell. As a summoner leveled up, the amount of crystals that could be equipped and the inclination of summon-able creatures to relinquish a crystal would increase. Of course, a summoner started out with all basic spells plus Pha Repth and Phal Repth. The magic statistics of a summoner were boosted as was the SP. Otherwise, the statistics mimicked a wavemaster's.

"So when do we start?" asked Idryth.

"Tomorrow, if you agree? I'll email you each the key words to be entered in the Omega Root town," said Gregory.

"I'd say we all agree," stated Maya.

The other two nodded and Gregory smiled. "All right then! Oh, CC corporation would appreciate it if you would not post about this on the message board or go around telling everybody. It makes things easier for us, believe me. In the event that one of you does not make it to gain your character class, we'll let you try again, but only once. Unless, of course, we made the challenge entirely too difficult. See you tomorrow!"

A/N: Right then.. Sorry about the delay.. I've been busy.. Anyway, hope you enjoy!


End file.
